THE HERRING. 43 
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produce of the season yields as much as £700,000. Three boats 
in 1857, belonging to one man, had taken 3,762,000 fish. The 
Scotch fishers are not behind the English in their war upon the 
herrings. Even as far back as 1826, there were 40,000 boats sent 
from the Scottish ports to the fishery. In 1854, from Wick alone 
920 boats were sent. In 1603, the value of the herrings exported 
from Holland was £50,000,000; 2,000 boats were employed in 
the undertaking, and 37,000 sailors. 
Block says, that in his time the Dutch salted nearly 624 
millions of herrings, and it is a saying in the Low Countries, that 
Amsterdam is founded on the heads of these fish. But with the 
decay of the nation, this branch of industry has fallen off. 
FISHING FOR HERRINGS., 
However, the herring-fishery still holds its position as the first 
of the sea industries. The fishers of Northern Europe call it the 
great, and that of the whale the //¢¢/e, fishery. There is some 
reason in the transmutation of the terms ; for, although the size 
of the individual herring is not to be compared to that of the 
cetacean monsters, yet the numbers of the herrings compensate 
for their size. Cuvier tells of a Dieppe fisherman, who in one 
night captured 280,000, and threw as many back into the sea— 
560,000 herrings would bear a favourable comparison with a whale. 
In 1781, the village of Gothembourg, in Sweden, exported 
136,649 barrels of herrings, each containing 1,200 fish, giving a 
total of 163,978,800. 
The fishing is conducted during the night. Each boat carries 
a lantern, not only to avoid collisions, but also to attract the fish. 
It is right to say, that the idea of herring migration, although still 
